LCS PlayPals at Tufts serves young children with disabilities and currently has spaces.
The program runs from 10am-12pm on Saturday mornings, usually 4-6 Saturdays in a semester. The dates for this semester are 2/13, 2/20, 2/27, 3/5, and 3/12, with a tentative date set for 4/2.
The first hour is spent in the gym, either the carzo cage or the chase gym (where it will be this semester). We have toys like building blocks, parachutes, and balls that the children play with.
Our volunteers usually roam around and play whatever the kids want, like basketball or tag. Kids tend to attach to a particular volunteer and play with them the whole time, but not always.
During the second hour we are in the pool, but it is a very relaxed pool session. Not all the kids swim, but those who do have a range of swimming abilities. When we go into the pool, 1 volunteer is
paired with 1 kid to play with and to supervise.
No volunteer is ever alone with a child. There is always at least one coordinator for the program there, and parents of the children do stick around for the 2 hours, unless they tell us beforehand that
they cannot stay the whole time. The parents are also sometimes friends with each other and might alternate who takes their kids to Play Pals.
Please share this and let me know if there are questions. The coordinator is Caitlin Duffy and she can be reached directly at Caitlin.Duffy@tufts.edu
Tufts University Gym
